Every Knee Will Bow

God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

– Philippians 2:9-11

This is part of a beautiful poem written by Paul about Jesus. It is very well known. Within it is this strange little notion (which is a repeat of Romans 14:11) that every knee will bow and every tongue confess (or “acknowledge” as the NIV translates it, above) that he is Lord.

I have heard and read teachers who claim that Eternal (everlasting) punishment is the “only Biblical view” but a very valid response to that is that you cannot ignore passages that apparently disagree, and still say you view is “Biblical”. A Biblical view must be able to hold all the passages in harmony.

If you think about it, this passage presents a problem. How can every knee bow and every tongue confess when most people have rejected him and, according to “traditional” reformed teaching, will not get another chance to change their mind. You have to find a way to have your concepts work together.

I was always led to believe – or maybe I just assumed – that this meant that every person would be forced to bow the knee, before facing their due eternal punishment. That fits, right? That is the only way to make sense of this and other, similar passages. People who have rejected him are forced to recognise that they blew it and see what they missed.

The problem with this is that it is not actually what is said here.

Let’s take a look.

The word used here for “confess” is exomologeo, which I am sure we are all familiar with. Just in case we are not, it is derived from two words – exek, which denotes “out of” and homologous, which means “of one mind.” Together, the word means “confess”/”agree”/ “give praise.” Interestingly, in both the LXX* and the New Testament it is used almost exclusively in the context of worship. We confess our sin in the context of worship, praise or prayer. We confess that Jesus is Lord in the context of worship, praise or prayer etc etc.

In other words exomologeo is an act of worship. it is never, ever, ever a forced or coerced act.

In other words, according to Romans 14 and Philippians 2, eventually, at some point in the future age,every single person will gladly worship Jesus. Everyone.